We never complain about unseasonable weather do we... As if! However anyone who thinks that our July weather has been colder than usual has my sympathy, people have been telling me about their central heating kicking in lately even though the thermostat is set very low. They are right! We have had far too many Northerly winds and this morning (July 27th) I heard a man from the Met Office saying that there was no prospect of change 'until early August'. So hang in there, we may yet see a Barlick summer!
My newsagent Lakhy Singh has been disabled by a bad shoulder for weeks now and when I told his wife that his illness licence had expired she dared me to put it into my column... So there you are. Brace up Lakhy and take the load off that good woman!
Time for an apology. Many of my friends might have thought I have been ignoring them on the street of late. The truth is that my eyes have been so bad that I couldn't recognise faces until I was very close. I'm happy to report that last Friday my daughter Susan took me to Burnley Eye Clinic, they did a laser procedure on both eyes that took less than five minutes and I walked out with fighter pilot vision! The problem had been that when you have eye implants to correct cataracts, the back wall of the natural capsule in your eye that contains the lens can cloud over. The laser is used to punch holes through it and even though this sounds terrible it's quick, painless and effective. So if any of you have the same trouble take heart, there is a complete cure, go get it! As long as your retinas are in good condition you will have fighter pilot vision again.
Of course, in order to protect themselves in this modern world of litigation the doctors have to give you a long list of all the things that can go wrong. I don't know about you but I don't want to know! I can't tell you what a relief the improvement is but there is a downside, you see all the dirt in your house! They didn't warn me about that but I have been busy cleaning TV remote controls, keypads on phones and computers and doing a deep clean on just about everything else!
Thanks to the surgeons and staff at Burnley and my daughter Susan who did all she could to help me. Most of all thanks to the Labour government of 1945 for the NHS and the free service we get which is 99% effective and efficient. At times like these you get a clear perspective of how important the service is and what it does for our lives. We are very lucky.....
So, I hope to see better weather soon and really enjoy it. No excuse now for ignoring you all on the street!
We are lucky. There is so much to see!
Stop Press!
Much hilarity at Singh's convenience store in Gisburn Road this morning as Lakhy was hard at work! He and his wife thought it was hilarious that I had kept my promise and blown the whistle on him! It must have worked.....
